North Korea - Statement by the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs

23 November 2010 - Statement by Ms Michele Alliot-Marie, Minister of Foreign and European Affairs made the following statement:

"I utterly condemn the firing of artillery shells by North Korea which targeted Yeonpyeong Island and which, according to the latest reports, has killed two South Korean soldiers and injured several South Korean civilians.

France urges North Korea to discontinue provocations and to refrain from any further action that may increase tension in the region.

We commend the spirit of responsibility demonstrated by the South Korean authorities."

22 November 2010 - Statement by the spokesman of the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs:

"France is concerned by the information gathered by Professor Siegfried S. Hecker (a professor at Stanford and former director of the Los Alamos National Laboratory) who says that he has visited a uranium enrichment centrifuge facility in North Korea.

By conducting an enrichment program, North Korea is blatantly violating its international obligations, in particular those arising under UN Security Council resolutions 1718 and 1874 which call for the complete, verifiable and irreversible dismantling of its nuclear weapons and programs.

France reaffirms that the IAEA must be able to carry out its inspection tasks. North Korea must therefore immediately allow the Agency’s inspectors to return to its territory and provide them with access to all of its nuclear facilities".